Oscillating anvil disintegrator

ABSTRACT

A machine for the reduction of various materials comprises a rotor within a casing, the rotor being provided on its periphery with a plurality of rigidly mounted blades the tips of which are formed to act as hammers which rotate close past a yieldingly mounted serrated anvil to form a so-called shredder. Arrangements are such that the material to be reduced may be either fed directly into the shredder or first cut by the blades before entering the shredder, whereas the oscillating anvil acts as a shock absorber during operation.

ilrrited States Patent [191 Ducasse Dec. 31,1974

[ OSCILLATING ANVIL DISINTEGRATOR [75] Inventor: Joseph Christophe Victor Ducasse, Papaaloa, Hawaii [73] Assignee: Unice Machine Company, San

Francisco, Calif.

[22] Filed: Oct. 27, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 301,442

[52] US. Cl. 241/189 R, 241/195, 241/239 [51] Int. Cl. 1302c 13/09 [58] Field of Search 241/191, 239, 189 R, 137,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1928 Merlis 241/191 1/1932 Stresau 241/191 3,447,758 6/1969 Oznobichine 241/191 X Primary Examiner-Roy Lake Assistant ExaminerE; F. Desmond Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack l 5 7 ABSTRACT A machine for the reduction of various materials comprises a rotor within a casing, the rotor being provided on its periphery with a plurality of rigidly mounted blades the tips of which are formed to act as hammers which rotate close past a yieldingly mounted serrated anvil to form a so-called shredder. Arrangements are such that the material to be reduced may be either fed directly into the shredder or first cut by the blades before entering the shredder, whereas the oscillating anvil acts as a shock absorber during operation.

23 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures l OSCILLATING ANVIL DISINTEGRATOR BACKGROUND or THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to machines used for the reduction of various materials such as rocks, paper, trash, sugar cane etc.

2. Prior Art Shredders are commonly used to reduce a number of materials. They are all built according to the same general design which includes a casing provided with a fixed serrated anvil and within which is a rotor having rows of hammers on its periphery mounted either pivotally or rigidly, the tips of which hammers rotate close past the anvil serrations during operation.

Conventionally shredders with fixed hammers have been limited to low rotational speeds and have been primarily used for the reduction of very soft materials such as cotton, wool etc., whereas those shredders used for dealing with relatively harder materials have rotated at high speed and have been invariably equipped with pivoting hammers. The provision of pivoting hammers has generally been thought necessary in shredders of the latter category. Whilst the hammers assume a definite position during idle operation (usually radial to the axis of the rotor), they act more or less as shock absorbers during actual processing of the material, i.e., they are in constant oscillation under the combined actions of the impacts (which tend to force them backwards) and the always present centrifugal force (which tends to keep them radial). Also, and more importantly, the usefulness of pivoting hammers lies in the fact that they could prevent serious damage to the machine on encountering some piece of hard foreign material by readily swinging back to offer generally enough space for the safe expulsion of such foreign matter from the machine.

On the other hand, machines having pivoted hammers result in high production costs and substantial disadvantages in the way of maintenance costs. The hammers have to be bushed and the bushes as well as the pivot rods have to be of specially selected material. Such parts, moreover, have to be replaced frequently due to wear resulting from the severe impacts to which they are almost constantly'subjected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the invention is to provide an improved machine for the performance of reducing operations on various materials.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a machine for performing, in an efficient manner, a reducing operation such as cutting or shredding on a material, or two reducing operations such as cutting and shredding simultaneously.

In accordance with this invention a machine for reducing various materials comprises a rotor disposed inside a casing and provided on its periphery with a plurality of rigidly mounted blades whose tips are conveniently employed as hammers and rotate close past the serrations of a yieldingly supported anvil during operatron.

Arrangements are such that, during operation, the material to be reduced may be either fed directly into the shredder formed by the rotating hammers and the anvil serrations for reduction by a single operation, or

against the opposite side of the rotor, in which case the material is reduced by simultaneous operations being first cut by the blades before entering the shredder there to be further reduced.

In both cases, it is the anvil which acts as a shock absorber, constantly oscillating under the combined forces due to the impacts generated by the hammers working on the material against its serrrations, and the reactions of the yieldable anvil-suspension means which always tend to keep it in a preset position.

Thus, the anvil is efficiently adapted here to achieve also that specific purpose so far assigned to the pivoting of shredder blades.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention is illustrated, by way of example, in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a section through the machine taken at right angles to the axis of the rotor.

FIG. 2 is a cross-section through the axis of the rotor looking in the direction of arrow .Z in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3, 4 and 5 are respectively a side elevation, a front elevation and a plan view showing details of the hammers at the blade tips.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the embodiment illustrated, the machine comprises a casing 1 within which is supported a rotor 2 consisting of a shaft 3 on which are rigidly mounted a series of blade holders 4 and to which, in turn, are bolted, riveted or otherwise rigidly secured a plurality of blades 5, the rotor 2 being arranged perpendicularly across the delivery end of a feed conveyor 6. The blades 5 are secured to the blade holders 4 so that they are in substantially radial positions with respect to the axis of the rotor 2. In the illustrated embodiment two blades 5 are shown secured to each blade holder 4; it will be appreciated, however, that if desired each blade holder 4 may be designed to accommodate more blades 5 than the two shown; Each blade 5 has a cutting edge 7 provided on one side of the stem with two hammers 8 at the top thereof. The blades 5 are better shown in FIGS. 3 to 5. The cutting edge 7 is provided on the leading side of the stem portion of the blade and the hammers 8 project laterally from the top or outer end of the stern portion. The hammers 8 of each blade 5 project laterally in opposite directions with respect to the longitudinal axis of the blade.

In operation, the rotor 2 is rotated in the direction of the arrow ll) by a motor 21 direct-coupled by coupling 22 to its shaft 3 on which is preferably mounted a flywheel 23.

During the cutting process the blades 5 cut into the massed material 9, assumed here to be sugar caane sticks, being fed against rotor 2, across the width of conveyor 6.

Because of the direction of rotation (as shown by arrow 10) of the rotor 2 all the knifed cane 111 is caused to be scattered over a steep chute 12 arranged on the opposite side of rotor 2 from carrier 6, and the sliced cut cane ends 11 form a layer on the chute 12 which rapidly slides down onto yieldingly mounted anvil means comprising an adjustable curved gate 13 which is hinged to the casing at 14 and is yieldingly biased to ward the rotor 2 by spring means 1l5 encircling an adjustable rod 16 by means of which the position of gate 13 may be preset relatively to the rotor 2. The gate 13 carries on its inside face an indented lining 17, the serrations of which, when gate 13 is in its innermost or preset position, are located at a small clearance distance from the tips of the revolving hammers 8. The cane chips 11 on this lining 17 are subjected to an intense shredding action and the resulting properly disintegrated cane 18 leaves through an outlet 19 provided at the bottom of the machine and may be deposited on a suitable discharge conveyor 20.

Alternatively, the whole cutting process may be bypassed and the conveyor 6 be arranged to feed the cane sticks 9 (in the direction indicated by arrow 24) directly into the shredder formed by the serrations of lining 17 and the revolving hammers 8. In this case, the top part 25 of casing 1 is removed, and an additional plate 26 (shown dotted in FIG. 1) is used to close that part of the casing as shown.

Any tramp iron entering the machine would, under the action of the hammers 8, force back the gate 13, thereby preventing serious damage to the machine.

While I have shown and described a present embodiment of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied within the scope of the following claims. For example, gate 13 may be replaced by a plurality of relatively spaced anvil bars which extend parallel to the axis of the rotor, such as are used in a Searby type shredder. Similarly, any other convenient form of suspension may be used to support gate 13.

I claim:

1. A machine for simultaneously cutting and shredding plant products, such as sugar cane stalks, said machine comprising:

a casing;

a rotor mounted to rotate about an axis thereof in said casing;

a feed opening in said casing, at one side thereof with respect to said rotor; means for feeding plant products through said feed opening toward said rotor in a direction substan tially perpendicular to said axis to said rotor;

anvil means yieldably mouned to said casing, at a side thereof with respect to said rotor opposite said feed opening;

said casing having a chute surface directly above said anvil means;

a plurality of blades rigidly mounted to the periphery of said rotor to rotate therewith;

each of said blades having on the leading edge thereof, with respect to the direction of rotation of said rotor, cutting edge means for cutting into pieces said plant products fed through said feed opening; and

each of said blades having at the outermost end thereof, extending in opposite directions parallel to said axis of said rotor and perpendicular to the plane of said blade, means for throwing the cut pieces of plant products upwardly onto said chute surface, whereafter said pieces of plant products slide downwardly to said anvil means, and for shredding said pieces of plant products against said anvil means.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said anvil means has a curved surface facing said rotor, said curved surface having serrations therein.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said anvil means is mounted such that all points of said curved surface are substantially equally spaced from said rotor.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said chute surface is inclined downwardly and inwardly toward said anvil means.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotor comprises a plurality of blade holders, and each of said blade holders has a plurality of blades rigidly attached thereto and extending substantially radially outwardly from said axis of said rotor.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein said blade holders are positioned such that said blades are arranged in rows extending parallel to said axis of said rotor, sadi rows being spaced about the periphery of said rotor.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein the blades attached to each of said blade holders are equally spaced therearound.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising suspension means for biasing said anvil means toward said rotor.

9. A machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein said anvil means is pivotally mounted at the upper end thereof to said casing.

10. A machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein said suspension means comprises means for presetting the closest position of said anvil means with respect to said rotor.

11. A machine as claimed in claim 8, further comprising an. outlet opening in the bottom of said casing for discharge of shredded plant products.

12. A machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein said means for throwing and for shredding on each of said blades comprises a first projection extending laterally from one side of the outermost end of said blade, and a second projection extending laterally from the opposite side of the outermost end of said blade.

13. A machine as claimed in claim 12, wherein both .of said first and-second projections are spaced from said leading edge of said blade in the direction of rotation of said blade.

14. A machine as claimed in claim 13, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction ofrotation of said blade.

15. A machine as claimed in claim 12, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction of rotation of said blade.

16. In a machine for simultaneously cutting and shredding plant products, such as sugar cane stalks, wherein the machine includes a casing; a rotor mounted to rotate about an axis thereof in said casing; a feed opening in said casing, at one side thereof with respect to said rotor; means for feeding plant products through said feed opening toward said rotor in a direction substantially perpendicular to said axis of said rotor; anvil means yieldably mounted to said casing, at a side thereof with respect to said rotor,'opposite said feed opening, said anvil means having a curved surface facing said rotor; said casing having a chute surface directly above said anvil means; and a plurality of blades operatively connected to the periphery of said rotor to rotate therewith,

the improvement comprising:

said blades being rigidly mounted to the periphery of said rotor;

each of said blades having on the leading edge thereof, with respect to the direction of rotation of said rotor, a single cutting edge means for cutting into pieces said plant products fed through said feed opening; and each of said blades having at the outermost end thereof, extending in opposite directions parallel to said axis of said rotor and perpendicular to the plane of said blade, means for throwing the cut pieces of plant products upwardly onto said chute surface, whereafter said pieces of plant products slide downwardly to said anvil means, and for shredding said pieces of plant products against said anvil means. 17. The improvement claimed in claim 16, wherein said rotor comprises a plurality of blade holders, and each of said blade holders has a plurality of blades rigidly attached thereto and extending substantially radially outwardly from said axis of said rotor.

18. The improvement claimed in claim 17, wherein said blade holders are positioned such that said blades are arranged in rows extending parallel to said axis of said rotor, said rows being spaced about the periphery of said rotor.

19. The improvement claimed in claim 17, wherein the blades attached to each of said blade holders are equally spaced therearound.

20. The improvement claimed in claim 16, wherein said means for throwing and for shredding on each of said blades comprises a first projection extending laterally from one side of the outermost end of said blade, and a second projection extending laterally from the opposite side of the outermost end of said blade.

21. The improvement claimed in claim 17, wherein both of said first and second projections are spaced from said leading edge of said blade in the direction of rotation of said blade.

22. The improvement claimed in claim 21, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction of rotation of said blade;

23. The improvement claimed in claim 20, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction of rotation of said blade. 

1. A machine for simultaneously cutting and shredding plant products, such as sugar cane stalks, said machine comprising: a casing; a rotor mounted to rotate about an axis thereof in said casing; a feed opening in said casing, at one side thereof with respect to said rotor; means for feeding plant products through said feed opening toward said rotor in a direction substantially perpendicular to said axis to said rotor; anvil means yieldably mouned to said casing, at a side thereof with respect to said rotor opposite said feed opening; said casing having a chute surface directly above said anvil means; a plurality of blades rigidly mounted to the periphery of said rotor to rotate therewith; each of said blades having on the leading edge thereof, with respect to the direction of rotation of said rotor, cutting edge means for cutting into pieces said plant products fed through said feed opening; and each of said blades having at the outermost end thereof, extending in opposite directions parallel to said axis of said rotor and perpendicular to the plane of said blade, means for throwing the cut pieces of plant products upwardly onto said chute surface, whereafter said pieces of plant products slide downwardly to said anvil means, and for shredding said pieces of plant products against said anvil means.
 2. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said anvil means has a curved surface facing said rotor, said curved surface having serrations therein.
 3. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said anvil means is mounted such that all points of said curved surface are substantially equally spaced from said rotor.
 4. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said chute surface is inclined downwardly and inwardly toward said anvil means.
 5. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotor comprises a plurality of blade holders, and each of said blade holders has a plurality of blades rigidly attached thereto and extending substantially radially outwardly from said axis of said rotor.
 6. A machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein said blade holders are positioned such that said blades are arranged in rows extending parallel to said axis of said rotor, sadi rows being spaced about the periphery of said rotor.
 7. A machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein the blades attached to each of said blade holders are equally spaced therearound.
 8. A machine as claimed in claim 1, further comprising suspension means for biasing said anvil means toward said rotor.
 9. A machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein said anvil means is pivotally mounted at the upper end thereof to said casing.
 10. A machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein said suspension means comprises means for presetting the closest position of said anvil means with respect to said rotor.
 11. A machine as claimed in claim 8, further comprising an outlet opening in the bottom of said casing for discharge of shredded plant products.
 12. A machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein Said means for throwing and for shredding on each of said blades comprises a first projection extending laterally from one side of the outermost end of said blade, and a second projection extending laterally from the opposite side of the outermost end of said blade.
 13. A machine as claimed in claim 12, wherein both of said first and second projections are spaced from said leading edge of said blade in the direction of rotation of said blade.
 14. A machine as claimed in claim 13, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction of rotation of said blade.
 15. A machine as claimed in claim 12, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction of rotation of said blade.
 16. In a machine for simultaneously cutting and shredding plant products, such as sugar cane stalks, wherein the machine includes a casing; a rotor mounted to rotate about an axis thereof in said casing; a feed opening in said casing, at one side thereof with respect to said rotor; means for feeding plant products through said feed opening toward said rotor in a direction substantially perpendicular to said axis of said rotor; anvil means yieldably mounted to said casing, at a side thereof with respect to said rotor, opposite said feed opening, said anvil means having a curved surface facing said rotor; said casing having a chute surface directly above said anvil means; and a plurality of blades operatively connected to the periphery of said rotor to rotate therewith, the improvement comprising: said blades being rigidly mounted to the periphery of said rotor; each of said blades having on the leading edge thereof, with respect to the direction of rotation of said rotor, a single cutting edge means for cutting into pieces said plant products fed through said feed opening; and each of said blades having at the outermost end thereof, extending in opposite directions parallel to said axis of said rotor and perpendicular to the plane of said blade, means for throwing the cut pieces of plant products upwardly onto said chute surface, whereafter said pieces of plant products slide downwardly to said anvil means, and for shredding said pieces of plant products against said anvil means.
 17. The improvement claimed in claim 16, wherein said rotor comprises a plurality of blade holders, and each of said blade holders has a plurality of blades rigidly attached thereto and extending substantially radially outwardly from said axis of said rotor.
 18. The improvement claimed in claim 17, wherein said blade holders are positioned such that said blades are arranged in rows extending parallel to said axis of said rotor, said rows being spaced about the periphery of said rotor.
 19. The improvement claimed in claim 17, wherein the blades attached to each of said blade holders are equally spaced therearound.
 20. The improvement claimed in claim 16, wherein said means for throwing and for shredding on each of said blades comprises a first projection extending laterally from one side of the outermost end of said blade, and a second projection extending laterally from the opposite side of the outermost end of said blade.
 21. The improvement claimed in claim 17, wherein both of said first and second projections are spaced from said leading edge of said blade in the direction of rotation of said blade.
 22. The improvement claimed in claim 21, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction of rotation of said blade.
 23. The improvement claimed in claim 20, wherein said second projection is spaced from said first projection in the direction of rotation of said blade. 